Re: Trans: Shoeflower Nose Man

Christophe Grandsire scripsit:

> If you can translate a sentence such as: "if I see the man who walked on my
> flowers, I'm gonna make him eat his dirty shoes through his nose!" :))
> without grammatical difficulties (I'm not talking about a lack of vocabulary),
> I'd say your language is pretty complete.
Well, Lojban passes easily:

ganai mi viska lo cadzu be le mi xrula
        gi .aicai mi bapli le nu ra citka ro le mabla cutci pe ra
        fi'o moklu le ra nazbi

(most letters as in IPA, but c=[S], j=[Z], . = glottal stop, penultimate stress)

Here's an interlinear:

ganai mi viska lo          cadzu be le  mi    xrula
If    I  see   the-one-who walks-on the of-me flowers

gi   .aicai      mi bapli  le  nu       ra  citka ro     le  mabla cutci pe ra
then [Intent!!!] I  compel the event-of he* eats  all-of the #@%$  shoes of him

fi'o moklu le  ra     nazbi
with-mouth the of-him nose.

*"Ra" specifically means something recently mentioned, but not the *last* thing
mentioned.

Note that I have chosen to translate "dirty" as an expletive rather than
literally.  Lojban has in effect an infinite number of swearwords, because
compounding any content word whatever with "mabla" gives it a bad connotation.

Likewise, Lojban has an infinite number of prepositions, because "fi'o" can
be followed by any content word to make an additional case connected with
the meaning of the word.  "Citka" takes two arguments, eater and eaten, but
I here add a third argument for the eating-orifice using "with-mouth".

--
John Cowan           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
Please leave your values        |       Check your assumptions.  In fact,
   at the front desk.           |          check your assumptions at the door.
     --sign in Paris hotel      |            --Miles Vorkosigan

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